From afar, the harvesters are like little white dots on the long slope of the high mountain tea plantation. They are taking care of the last plantation in need of harvest in this area. Are they late? Where have the other harvesters moved on? There's a sense of urgency on this cold and grey day of May...
As far as the eye can see, all the other tea fields look clean and shaven. Empty. A couple of trucks and several scooters can be heard in these mountains, where every sound is amplified and resonates from one flank to the other.
I'm in luck! I'm scouting for tea and mountain pictures. I'm also looking for a place to have tea in nature. Usually, I'm on the look out for a Chinese pavilion, a place with a table and some protection from the sun. But today's foggy weather doesn't require a roof over my head. And I have better than a pavilion, I have a fantastic view!
I set up my Chaxi on the side of a road overlooking a tea plantation and facing a whole tea mountain with at least 20 more tea fields scattered among the bamboo forests. Did I mention there's also a plantation right behind me?! I feel I'm in the very center of this tea mountain.
The spring tea scents are all around, swirling, echoing, playing, translucent and fresh! By making this tea with leaves that were harvested here just 2 days ago, I'm catching the mood and the taste of mountain. It's in my teapot. It goes into my celadon cup. I can smell and enjoy it as it smoothly goes down my throat, sip by sip.
It's during this whole, this complete, this total tea experience that I decided that this would be my spring Shan Lin Xi batch of 2022. Because it struck a cord. Because it felt good. Because I felt fantastic. And each time I drink
this Shan Lin Xi Oolong, I want to feel the same glorious beauty and harmony.
As I have finished my Chaxi, I follow the trail of these scooters that have parked nearby. I could almost see them and definitely could here them while I was pouring my tea. After a short hike up then down, I meet the group of Vietnamese pickers busy in this plantation.
Tea happiness starts with happy pickers!
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